{ "slug": "new-baby", "url": "https://checklists.org/new-baby", "markdown": "https://checklists.org/new-baby.md", "title": "Preparing for a New Baby", "description": "Third trimester through the first week home, from car seat installation to the insurance enrollment deadline.", "category": "life", "tags": [ "family", "life-events" ], "version": "1.0", "updated": "2026-07-07", "sources": [ { "name": "AAP HealthyChildren — A Parent's Guide to Safe Sleep", "url": "https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/A-Parents-Guide-to-Safe-Sleep.aspx" }, { "name": "NHTSA — Car seats and booster seats", "url": "https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/car-seats-and-booster-seats" }, { "name": "SSA — Social Security number and card", "url": "https://www.ssa.gov/number-card" } ], "intro": "For expecting parents, from the start of the third trimester through the first week home. Assumes a U.S. hospital birth; paperwork differs slightly for birth centers and home births.", "itemCount": 31, "essentialCount": 11, "sections": [ { "title": "Weeks 28–32", "items": [ { "id": "ru7iyp", "text": "Choose a pediatrician", "note": "Confirm they take your insurance and can see the baby at your delivery hospital or right after discharge. Most practices offer a free prenatal meet-and-greet — use it to ask about after-hours calls." }, { "id": "1216qz5", "text": "Get the Tdap vaccine, and ask close caregivers to be current on theirs", "note": "Recommended between 27 and 36 weeks of every pregnancy. Whooping cough is most dangerous in the first months, before the baby's own vaccinations start.", "essential": true }, { "id": "6sumyz", "text": "Take an infant CPR and choking class", "note": "Include grandparents and anyone else who will be alone with the baby." }, { "id": "1345aml", "text": "Find your health insurance's newborn enrollment window", "note": "Most employer plans give you 30 days from birth to add the baby; some give 60. Miss it and you may wait for open enrollment — with a newborn's hospital bills uncovered.", "essential": true }, { "id": "pqhm4z", "text": "File parental leave paperwork with your employer", "note": "FMLA and short-term disability forms often need a doctor's signature and 30 days' notice. Confirm your dates and pay in writing.", "essential": true }, { "id": "e0tg9i", "text": "Buy the essential gear", "note": "Rear-facing car seat, bassinet or crib with a firm flat mattress, diapers in newborn and size 1, wipes, six to eight onesies, swaddles, a rectal thermometer, burp cloths. Everything else can wait." } ] }, { "title": "Weeks 33–36", "items": [ { "id": "so6ipy", "text": "Install the rear-facing car seat", "note": "Read both the seat manual and your vehicle's manual — NHTSA finds roughly half of car seats are installed incorrectly.", "essential": true }, { "id": "1h113vh", "text": "Have the installation checked by a certified technician", "note": "Free at NHTSA-listed inspection stations, often fire stations and hospitals. Find one through nhtsa.gov. Hospitals will not let you leave without a car seat.", "essential": true }, { "id": "tctml4", "text": "Set up the sleep space: firm flat mattress, fitted sheet, nothing else", "note": "AAP safe sleep: no blankets, pillows, bumpers, or positioners in the sleep space, and room-sharing (not bed-sharing) for at least the first six months.", "essential": true }, { "id": "xkzoze", "text": "Wash baby clothes, swaddles, and sheets in fragrance-free detergent" }, { "id": "5r38t6", "text": "Set the water heater to 120°F and test smoke and CO alarms", "note": "Above 120°F, a newborn's skin scalds in seconds.", "essential": true }, { "id": "cu2qzt", "text": "Pack the hospital bag and keep it by the door", "note": "ID, insurance card, phone charger with a long cable, toiletries, going-home outfits for parent and baby, snacks, and the pediatrician's name — the hospital will ask for it." }, { "id": "1jkhcy5", "text": "Pre-register at the hospital and do a practice drive", "note": "Doing intake paperwork mid-contraction is miserable. Learn where to park and which entrance is unlocked at night." }, { "id": "1ajygit", "text": "Stock two weeks of freezer meals", "note": "Double recipes at normal dinners from now on. Label each with reheating instructions so any helper can serve them." }, { "id": "1o7leup", "text": "Put specific help on the calendar for the first two weeks", "note": "Names and dates, not \"call if you need anything\": who covers meals, laundry, errands, and a night shift or two." }, { "id": "1t0ygdy", "text": "Arrange on-call care for older kids during the birth", "note": "Someone reachable at 3 a.m. with a key to your house.", "when": "other-kids", "essential": true }, { "id": "wiq1f5", "text": "Arrange pet care for the hospital stay", "when": "pets" }, { "id": "7vv9lx", "text": "Learn the warning signs of postpartum depression together", "note": "It affects roughly 1 in 8 birth parents, and partners often notice first. Save the Postpartum Support International helpline: 1-800-944-4773." } ] }, { "title": "Weeks 37–40", "items": [ { "id": "j93fi8", "text": "Install a car seat or base in the second car", "when": "two-cars" }, { "id": "xqn52c", "text": "Stock postpartum recovery supplies", "note": "Heavy pads, a peri bottle, stool softener, ibuprofen. The hospital sends some home; you will want more." }, { "id": "1s5kyx1", "text": "Refill household prescriptions", "note": "Pharmacy runs get hard for a few weeks." }, { "id": "gwdtub", "text": "Agree on go-time logistics", "note": "Who you call, who drives, where the bag is, which route. Decide now, not during contractions." } ] }, { "title": "At the hospital", "items": [ { "id": "14hswsy", "text": "Complete the birth certificate worksheet before discharge", "note": "The hospital files it with the state. Check every spelling character by character — corrections later mean forms, fees, and weeks." }, { "id": "1185x83", "text": "Request the Social Security number on the same form", "note": "Check the box on the birth registration; the card arrives by mail in a few weeks. Doing it later means an in-person SSA visit with original documents." }, { "id": "qnq32g", "text": "Book the first pediatrician visit before you leave", "note": "The AAP recommends a checkup at 3–5 days old for weight and jaundice checks — call from the hospital, since slots go fast." }, { "id": "eh397a", "text": "See the lactation consultant before discharge", "note": "Included while you're admitted; the same hour costs real money as an outpatient, and early latch problems compound quickly.", "when": "breastfeeding" } ] }, { "title": "First week home", "items": [ { "id": "1uz7bj0", "text": "Add the baby to your health insurance", "note": "Do it this week even though the window is longer — the baby's hospital charges are billed separately from the birth parent's.", "essential": true }, { "id": "1irekjl", "text": "Follow safe sleep at every sleep, including naps", "note": "Alone, on the back, in the bare crib or bassinet — every time. If you might doze off while feeding at night, feed on an adult bed cleared of pillows and blankets, never on a sofa or armchair.", "essential": true }, { "id": "1i8fvvj", "text": "Track feeds and wet diapers for the first week", "note": "By day 5, expect about six wet diapers a day. Fewer, or a sleepy baby who won't wake to feed, is a same-day call to the pediatrician." }, { "id": "zrubiv", "text": "Call the pediatrician immediately for a rectal temperature of 100.4°F or higher", "note": "Fever in the first two months is treated as an emergency, not a wait-and-see.", "essential": true }, { "id": "1plyunp", "text": "Schedule the birth parent's postpartum checkup", "note": "Guidance now calls for contact with your OB or midwife within three weeks, not the old single six-week visit. Book it before the fog sets in." } ] } ] }